That week when we had 2 dogs

So, a few weeks ago I went into the storage/pantry closet to get something while I was cooking dinner and stepped in a big puddle of cold water. We discovered that the air conditioner had been leaking a flood of water every time it ran and shut off for probably several weeks. All of it had gone UNDER the linoleum and hardwood floors so we hadn't noticed, until it started seeping back out from under the wood that night.

Wade had to rip up 7 or 8 rows of boards that were all totally wet underneath. We were freaking out that we were going to have to replace the a/c unit and the floor of the entire room and all this stuff and it was going to cost like $7,000.

That was a Monday night. On Tuesday, with our floors a mess, our air conditioner turned off to prevent more leaking, and half the stuff from the closet out in the middle of the living room, we went up to our photographers' house to pick out our wedding proofs.

When we got there, this cute Basset hound puppy greeted us, and they explained that they were keeping this dog for some friends of theirs who couldn't keep her anymore and needed to find a home for her. She was so cute and over the course of time we were there, we decided to take her home to see if Wade's parents would keep her, because they'd been looking for a second dog.

So we load the Basset hound, her crate, a container of food and a couple of toys into our car and bring her home to our messy house for the evening, planning to surprise Wade's parents by bringing her over the next evening.

She's supposedly housebroken, but is only a year old and we are taking her to her 3rd home in about a week, so the next morning did not go so well. She can't be let outside without a leash, but she won't go to the bathroom on a leash. If I leave her outside on a long chain, she barks and I'm afraid she's waking up the neighbors. So I took her outside with no success, then brought her back inside and kept her in our bedroom while I took a shower. Get out of the shower and have 8 or so poop droppings all over the floor of our room (and both dogs pacing around).

I clean it all up, clogging the toilet in the process, and leave the dogs gated in the kitchen & entry way while I go to work. Paisley is so scared of the baby gate - and her water bowl is near enough to it - that she doesn't drink anything all day and starts gulping water down when we get home and take the gate down.

Meanwhile, Hillary's maintenance guy came and fixed our air conditioner that day (and didn't charge us - what a blessing!) and said he could fix the floors that weekend. We take the dogs over to the Tapps' that night, and Joli (Wade's mom) falls in love with the dog but thinks she's a better playmate for Paisley than their dog Duke and tries to convince us to keep her! Wade tried valiantly to sell them on Ellie, but it did not work.

So she stayed with us several more days while we tried to coordinate either finding her a new home or getting her back to our photographers. Meanwhile, she's so cute but also stressing me out completely because having 2 dogs in a condo is way harder than having 1, and I forgot how much attention and effort puppies take. I'm used to Paisley and she's used to me and I'm now so much more grateful for how easy she is!

We debated whether to keep her, but pretty much the only reason to keep her was she was cute. Every other reason led to the logical conclusion of DO NOT KEEP HER. Do not take on a 2nd dog that you will still have when you're 40 and have kids and she starts getting sick and needing all kinds of vet expenses. Do not take on a 2nd dog that you have to buy food, heartworm, shots, flea medicine, toys, leashes, spaying surgery, etc. for when you are trying to figure out how you're going to live on one salary when you have kids. Do not take on a 2nd dog that will make it a lot harder to find someone to keep both when you go out of town.

So, luckily we were saved by an old friend who saw my Facebook status and said he was interested in getting a Basset hound. He came over that Saturday and took Ellie for a test run, and from what I hear she's doing great in her new home and he loves having her.

The guy did not really come through for me on the floors, but we called our old neighbors and they just finished fixing them all up today! Hallelujah, I can put my living room back together now.